Activist: Pit bull ban 'ethnic cleansing'

TORONTO, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- A public hearing into the province of Ontario's proposed ban on pit bull terriers heard one dog-lover call it "canine genocide," the Toronto Star said Tuesday.

In the first of four scheduled hearings, Cathy Prothro, founding president of the American Staffordshire Terriers Club of Canada, told politicians the move was a form of "racial profiling (that) ... amounts to nothing more than canine ethnic cleansing.

"Breed-specific legislation is an injustice, canine genocide," she said.

However, Louise Ellis, whose 5-year-old daughter was permanently scarred by a pit bull attack 10 years ago, disagreed.

"The animal rights activists will try to tell you that pit bulls don't harm people, that pit bull owners harm people," she said. "Lord how I wish the owner had bitten my child instead of his dog."

Under proposed laws, current owners of pit bulls can keep them, but the dogs must be leashed and muzzled in public, and spayed or neutered. Owners of any breed of dog that bites, attacks or is a menace to public safety could be subject to fines of up to $10,000 and, for the first time, a jail term of up to six months.